


Bread and Roses

by akire_yta



Series: prompt ficlets [553]
Category: Thunderbirds
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-09
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-05-04 08:55:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14589477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akire_yta/pseuds/akire_yta
Summary: thebaconsandwichofregret askedif you're not busy some John/Kayo would be great :) especially after last week's ep





	Bread and Roses

“Well,” Kayo says, announcing her presence as she crosses the threshold into the upper lounge. “That was a day.”

John smiles softly over his tea, but he shuffles over a little to make room where he’s curled up against the arm of the overstuffed two-seater that looks down and out over the bay. Even so, his bare toes touch her thigh as she sits down, straight backed next to his childishly curled form. His knees are up almost to his chest, his ankles underneath him as he hunched over his steaming mug, but he smiles tiredly at her as she studies him with an open regard.

Seeing John out of uniform is like traveling back in time half a decade, to a time before  _everything._ He looks younger, or perhaps more accurately, he just looks his age, with all the duty and obligation and pressure stripped away to be replaced by a stretched out pair of sweats and tousled-hair.

John waits for her to finish her inspection before he holds out his mug for her to companionably tap a salute against his with her own.  “That,” he agrees firmly.  “Was a  _day._ ”

“Bloody Chaos Crew.”

John sniggers.  “Bloody  _Gladys_ ,” he retorts. “I’m going to dream of giant man eating plants tonight, I can feel it.”

“Gladys is the one I have no problem with,” Kayo quips with a raised eyebrow, just to get another soft laugh. “Ten dollars we’ll be dealing with that growth serum again.”

“No bet.”

“Cheapskate.”

John shrugs, takes a sip.  “We’ll figure it out. I’ve already got EOS making a file.”

“How is she?”

“I fear she’s discovered hypochondria.” John let his smile fade. “We’re looking at her firewalls.  Could have been worse.”

Kayo hates that that’s become their new unofficial mantra.  “It was nice to have you out in the field with us again.  Physically, I mean.”

John rolls his shoulders.  “Next time, you’re coming up.  We have no gravity and a pollen count we can control.”

“Weak!” she snarks, poking his in-step.

He retaliates by pressing cold toes against her thigh.  Kayo couldn’t help the way her chest lifted as she inhaled sharply.  “Sorry,” John mutters, pulling back slightly, curling up in his invisible shell.

She stops him with the lightest touch, her fingers barely resting on his bare ankles.  “You and your cold feet,” she murmurs, trying to regain the playful mood but feeling it slip away like water in her fist.  She let her touch drift down and along the curve of his instep.  “You could wear socks.”

“I don’t often get a chance to be barefoot anymore,” he admits, voice quiet. His feet are surprisingly soft, but then again, he’s not always grinding away like the rest of them, gravity bound and always, literally, kept on their toes.

Kayo shifted her grip, pressing her thumb into the arch, finding that point that always made him twitch and gasp.  “Kayo….”

“You need to run against gravity more, your joints will get too weak.”

“Yes doctor.”

For that she found a particularly large knot and pressed without mercy. “Tanusha!” he warned.

“Wow, real first names, am I in trouble?” she sang, bratty and a little overbold.

John shifted again, turning slightly away from her.  “Gods, you haven’t changed have you?”

Kayo breathes out hard through pursed lips; they so very rarely acknowledged a time before that sometimes she felt like she’d dreamed the whole thing.  Then she finds herself standing next to him, or listening to him talk, and something chimes a note from the past so clearly past and presence blur.

She steals a sideways glance, catches the edge of a grimace, like John is having exactly the same thought.  “We have changed, though,” she says, barely believing she’s saying this aloud.  “Both of us. Quite a lot.”

John licks his lips, and the sense-memory of the past grows stronger.  “Kay,” he says, fondness and sternness in one.  “We ended that for some very good reasons.”

“You know, I can’t remember a single one.”

“Well.”  John swallows hard again, and Kayo set aside her own mug.  “Duty, and obligation were two, I’m pretty sure.”

“Off duty now,” she says as she rested her tea-warmed palms against his thighs.

“Are we really, ever?”

“We’re talented people.  We can multitask.”  She let her eyelashes flutter closed. “I’ve missed you.  But if you haven’t…I’ll go.”

She’s not ready for the feel of his own warmed fingers tracing the curve of her cheek.  “I’ve missed you,” he admits softly as she opens her eyes.

Kayo leans forward, onto him, to kiss him like she remembers doing so easily many years before.

John’s hand catch at the nape of her neck and help drag her back down.


End file.
